Perez the Thought: Gossip Blogger Plans Cozy Family And Fame Bigger than Barbara’s

How does Perez Hilton, a.k.a. Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., deal with the criticism of his bitchy eponymous gossip Web site? “I cover myself in baby oil!” said Mr. Hilton, 29, at the launch party for PMbuzz.com—a new online nightlife social network co-founded by Danny Epstein, a 21-year-old entrepreneur, and his father, Fred—at the subterranean, heavily lacquered Grand nightclub in midtown on Thursday, Aug. 9. But seriously, folks: “I dish it, I can take it!” said Mr. Hilton, who was wearing a short-sleeved button-down shirt and a slim necktie. “You may call me fat, you may call me stupid, you may call me a bad writer, you may call me ugly, but don’t attack what I do specifically.”

When Mr. Hilton visited ABC talk show The View recently, co-host Joy Behar attacked him specifically for mocking celebrities’ children, like Demi Moore and Bruce Willis’ daughter Rumer, to whom the blogger often refers as “Potato Head.” “It’s like having sex,” he shrugged of the uncomfortable episode. “You always have high expectations, you always want it to be really good, but sometimes you have sex and it’s not that good, and it’s like, all right, what are you going to do, stop in the middle of it? Just take it till you’re done!”

Mr. Hilton is soon to make the leap to television himself, with a VH1 program, What Perez Sez, that debuts in early September. “It’s not like a reality show,” he said, adding loftily: “You know how Barbara Walters has her specials every once in a while? It’ll be like that.”

And how are things for him in the romance department? “I’m expecting to be alone for the rest of my life,” Mr. Hilton said, “but I’m taking steps to create my own happiness, however Oprah-ish that may sound—I love Oprah; I’m an Otheist. I want to create my own family. I want to have kids, and that’s forever. Boyfriends may come and go, but kids are ’til death.”